Luxury Off-The-Grid Survival Retreats : FORTIFIED & HARDENED Homes

Regardless of your budget there are physical improvements that can be completed on an existing home to bring a higher level of overall protection.

Most of our clients seek to renovate an existing home and outbuildings, rather than build. Although building from the ground up is the best overall choice, many times it can be more economical to simply retrofit a property into a secure homestead. If you're looking to build a truly safe and sustainable retreat from the ground up, you have found the right place.

Douglas Clark is our certified Hardened Structures architect. He will design everything from a small safe storage room, defensive fighting positions all the way to a fully integrated shelter capable of surviving a nuclear detonation within 10 miles, and everything in between.

The fees for the retrofit and design work are well within the scope and means of our average clients, so don't be leery of speaking with Douglas and his Hardened Structures Team.

In each custom consulting package, time is allotted to speak directly with Douglas about your plans in order for you to ascertain the feasibility of the improvements you're seeking in the new rural homestead.

RISK ASSESSMENT

Because it is impossible to protect against all threats and hazards, adopting a balanced approach in designs that considers intended functions, threat mitigation and budget is imperative. There is no one-size-fits-all and there is no formula of security features and programs that will ensure 100% safety against all violent attacks or natural disasters.

Designers and owners must understand the limitations of designed facilities and proposed countermeasures. Mitigating measures or countermeasures are specified to meet a particular anticipated threat, not all possible threats.

Douglas and his team design your facility to achieve a Balanced Survivability, ensuring that no one system or component is the "Achilles heel." No matter if it is a regional natural disaster, nuclear and/or EMP event, armed assaults, or any civilization altering scenario, our experienced teams of architects, engineers and project managers can design and construct your facility efficiently, covertly, and cost effectively.

Hardened Structures are designed to perform its PRIMARY MISSION both during and after a war-like or criminal attack, a major natural disaster, or accidental/man-made emergency. Douglas and his team address these challenges by employing a Multi-Hazard Engineering methodology in the design and planning stages that not only recognizes individual hazards/threats sequentially, but also address all hazards/threats simultaneously as a problem of optimization under constraints. A Hardened Structures facility can be designed to protected against a wide range of threats including:

Hardened Structures is a Professional Design & Construction Program Management Firm specializing in the confidential planning, design and covert construction of fortified homes (or conventional homes) with underground shelters or bunkers (shown above), stand alone shelters and other types of sheltering options. These facilities are designed with independent sources of power and water. They can serve as a primary dwelling, vacation home, retreat, long term shelter or expanded multi-function compound. Client confidentiality and total project secrecy are paramount on all of our projects.

Our Team comprises of a core group of independent design firms and general contractors with specialized training in the unique design and construction requirements of Fortified Homes.

Balanced Survivability Design Approach

Because it is impossible to protect against all threats and hazards, adopting a "balanced approach" in designs that considers intended functions, threat mitigation, and budget, is imperative. This is where Hardened Structures experience and know-how separates our Team from the general purpose Architects and Engineers. Our Teams experience has shown there is no one-size-fits-all or formula of security features and programs that will ensure 100% safety against all manmade or natural disasters.

In order to meet our client's goals and budgets, our Team ensures each project is designed and specified to meet a particular hierarchy of anticipated threats, not all possible threats. In other words, Hardened Structures' Team designs your facility to achieve a Balanced Survivability, ensuring that no one system or component is the "Achilles Heel". No matter if your personal threat hierarchy focuses first and foremost on a regional natural disaster, Nuclear, Biological, Chemical or EMP/HEMP event, or forced/armed entry; our experienced and highly specialized team of engineers, scientists and ex-Navy SEALS can confidentiality design and covertly construct your facility efficiently and cost effectively.

Traditional American executive home architecture has a number of pitfalls which are detrimental to secure home planning.

We advise some sound planning principals for hardened home design which are contrary to the typical executive home plan, but very favorable to making the home much more ready to protect families in a crisis event.

One key design concern is a master suite separated far from children's bedrooms, often on the opposite site of the home, past the main entry, combined with a grand open plan main entry to great room layout ( 70% of home invasions occur through the front door ).

All humans natural reaction is to personally go secure their children in an emergency.

Therefore one can easily see how a home with the master and children's bedrooms separated by the main entry is a major design flaw in secure home design in event of a home invasions, (or even in a tornado or fire or earthquake).

At Hardened Structures our architects can design to your individual architectural style be it Contemporary, Traditional, Colonial, Mediterranean, Beach Front, Southwestern or any personal preference. We can also work with your own architect to achieve the level of protection and perfection necessary for your personal residence. Our security consultants are internationally recognized experts in the fields of building fortifications, personal security, advanced security systems and offensive/defensive components.

At Hardened Structures we employ a Multi-Hazard Engineering methodology that not only recognizes individual threats sequentially, but also address all hazards/threats as simultaneously occurring, so as to insure there is no "Achilles Heel" within our designs. The Protection Program for a Fortified Home is varied and is usually determined by the Client's Threat, Risk and Asset assessments.

The home can be protected against a wide range of threats including forced entry/assaults, climate change, chemical / biological / radiological / explosive (CBRE) agents, air-blast, ground shock, penetration, fragmentation and damage to the structure and equipment due to explosive loading. Along with the Client's particular living, function and storage requirements, the designs also incorporate active offensive and defensive components, and mechanical responses to reduce the effectiveness of any given threat while providing for individual/family long term living requirements.Fortified Homes are special, and so are the people who choose them. At Hardened Structures confidentiality is paramount. We serve as our Client's agent, representing their best efforts by professionally and stealthily implementing a design/build program to meet any Threat Event.

For most of our clients, one of the most important aspects of designing their Fortified Home is that it not resemble a fortified home and that the outwardly appearance is of a well designed custom home. Only the owners will know the true capabilities and functions of the home which may include:

The enhancement of preparedness properties through the seamless integration of water features, alternative energy and food production systems with discreetly designed tactical positions.

The integration of these key features provides the foundation for a sustainable and defensible retreat property.

As preppers we are all seeking abundant water, alternative energy creation, sustainable year round food production, on a highly defensible property. These attributes are the pillars of retreat property scouting, however, how do you implement all these aspects into a seamless retreat development plan that not only makes sense, but stays under budget?

Before you start making calls and buying equipment for your property, you'll need a well thought out design. The questions are endless; How to clear a spot for the solar panels yet keep certain trees and bushes for cover and concealment? Can the tail-water from the hydro be used to form a water feature that acts as a terrain obstacle for threats? How about a combination swale and Hugelkultur bed to form a vehicular barrier both at the entrance of the retreat, but along the extended driveway as it winds along several curves designed for ambush points, and food production.

The landscape design division of Survival Retreat Consulting can tackle these tough answers and help you move into the design and retrofit stage, and as you'll find out it's the most exciting and rewarding stages of your new property ownership.

Defensive positions should be seamlessly integrated into the surrounding terrain.